Sunday, April 6, 2014

Hyperrealism and Humor drive The Realistic Joneses

The Realistic Joneses premiered in 2012 at the Yale
Repertory Theater and has now moved to Broadway to take up residency at
Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre. It is not a
perfect fit. The show, which is hilariously
off center, seems a more natural fit for Playwright’s Horizon, or 2nd
Stage or any other fantastic, quirky, just Off-Broadway
venue. Will Eno, the playwright and
author of pieces Gnit, Middletown and Thom Pain (based on nothing),
has a reputation for creating pieces that you love or hate. I loved The Realistic Joneses, but many in
the audience were less than amused.

A dream cast takes the story of two couples, both surnamed
Jones, and inhabits them with a surfeit of emotion and awkward tenderness in
all its incoherent manifestations.
Jennifer and Bob Jones (Toni Collette and Tracy Letts) are an older
couple who’s stable lives have been interrupted, first by a disease and then by
the new neighbor couple of Pony and John Jones surprising drop-bye (Marisa Tomei and Michael C.
Hall). The new neighbors show up uninvited – albeit arriving with wine.

.

The tone is set
early, when Bob goes in the house to get wine glasses and Jennifer quietly
explains that Bob is undergoing treatment for a complicated disease.

.

Pony quickly says, “Say no more.”

.

So Jennifer naturally asks, “Have you had experience with
something like this?’

.

And Pony answers, “No.
I just don’t want you to say anymore about it”

.

It is this deadpan, flatly delivered honesty breaks down the
walls between the two Jones couples and the audience. The two couples have more in common that you
first expect, although there is no big reveal, no massive surprise that twists the
play in a unexpected direction. Instead,
there is just an amazing cast telling a funny and oddly touching story.

.

It is a tale of acceptance of the inevitable, no matter how difficult. And the tale of how we all react to circumstances beyond our control.

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Directed with a spare honesty by Sam Gold, The Realistic
Joneses doesn’t strive for great insights and so delivers the day-to-day
insights with more clarity and realism than you expect. It is a great show.